Catholic Family Credit Union’s Wells ready to travel after long career

Word this week that Marilyn Wells had retired as president of Catholic Family Federal Credit Union and been replaced byMichael Taylor prompted me to track her down for a few comments on her 38½-year career in credit unions, the last 25 at CFFCU.

Memorable accomplishments at Catholic Family — it was St. Joseph Federal Credit Union until 1990 — included helping St. Joseph get out from under the regulatory oversight it faced when she joined it in 1988, and building Catholic Family’s new corporate headquarters at 717 N. Socora St., which opened Feb. 1, 2011.

“This was unpacking day two years ago,” Wells told me this morning.

“I feel very good about what I did for the credit union, what I contributed to the well-being of the credit union,” Wells said.

Regulators were monitoring it closely when she arrived.

“It was not in good shape at the time,” Wells said. “The credit union had just unfortunately gotten in an area of business that they just didn’t handle well. It caused some financial problems for them, primarily in mortgages and trying to do business loans that they just weren’t equipped to handle.”

Working with the board and staff, she got Catholic Family turned around and helped set it on a path to growth and more services for members, which now total 4,328. Catholic Family members can now do routine transactions at 30 locations of other credit unions through their shared branching system.

Catholic Family also has a partnership with Mid American Credit Union that allows Catholic Family members to use Mid American’s new branch near K-96 and Webb Road and for nonmembers to open accounts there.

Catholic Family has $27 million in assets today. It ranked 12th, based on year-end 2011 assets, in the Wichita Business Journal’s list of largest Wichita-area credit unions, which was published Sept. 7, 2012.

Wells was 20 when she began her credit union career in 1974, just four days after getting married.

She started as teller and collection officer at Wichita Municipal Federal Credit Union, now Wichita Federal Credit Union. She then moved to Vulcan Chemical Community Credit Union as manager in charge of the two-person office, which merged into Central Star Credit Union long after she left.

“It was a big job moving over to Vulcan when I took the job as manager,” Wells said of her nine-plus years there. “I was responsible for everything — you learn even more on a job like that.”

But it prepared her well for her next, and final, stint at Catholic Family.

Wells had been planning to retire for several years, knowing it would be sometime after the new building opened.

Now that she’s home, she and her husband, Randy, plan to do some traveling, including a spring cruise followed by a driving trip to some national parks, and also continue their work with community-service organizations.